Blog 1: Jaffe and "North and South"

Jaffe makes note of a couple of ideas that fascinate me particularly in its connection with the idea of the definition of class and North and South. First, if I understand Jaffe correctly, sympathy is an imaginative thought process where a middle-class individual first sees a ‘degraded’ or dis-respectable member of society, imagines themselves in their place, notices the tenuous distance between one of their own position and that of the social pariah, and then discovers sympathy as they recognize they could never be that person. In that moment of dis-identification is first relief and then sympathy. This makes sense in some regard because the overwhelming wealth of words people expended on defining the middle-class speak to some form of identity crisis. They are neither aristocrats nor beggars. In this large spectrum, who they are becomes very important and a very important place for a power play. As Jaffe notes, “sympathy in Victorian culture…is sympathy both for and against images of cultural identity” (10). So sympathy becomes a way for the middle-class to separate themselves out from the high and low classes. However, sympathy also seems to imply other characteristics that might be meant to distinguish the middle-class. First, this type of imaginative recognition and dis-recognition requires critical thought and reflection, so they must be intelligent or educated.  Second, in coming to sympathy for a ‘pathetic creature’ they might also have a sense of morality that moves them to action, i.e. charity work. Third, and this one I’m less certain about, they might demonstrate tolerance. In order to work and live in between classes a certain level of tolerance, of understanding the other party is necessary. However, they may be synonymous with sympathy to some extent.

Margaret is an interesting person of sympathy in this novel. For while she is of the middle-class, raised by aristocracy, and used to having sympathy with the poor as a clergyman’s daughter, who she must learn to have sympathy with is the wealthy tradespeople of the North. However, I can’t quite make her fit into Jaffe’s neat process in the reverse. While Margaret does learn the ways of the North and even falls in love with a man of trade, she never has to really identify herself as a tradeswoman since she inherits the money and property. In essence, she converts Mr. Thorton to her identity. This conversion to middle-class strikes me as one of the true middle-class ideals.